The effort of trying to find a date that works for everyone is almost enough to put you off wanting to make plans in the first place. The endless group chat messages, polls that get lost in the back-and-forth, and even resorting to spreadsheets to manually input and visualise everyone’s availability… it’s a lot 🥱

But don’t get so worked up, there are easier ways to find when everyone in your group is free without needing to cycle between 3,148 apps 🧚‍♀️

So, how are most people finding what dates work best for everyone in the group? 

Group chats are great… until you’re trying to make plans

Dropping messages into the main group chat for plans happens all the time. Everyone’s already on it and you don’t need to go hunting everyone down - but how many of these plans actually end up happening? 

For the most part, group chat plans never end up happening. The chat gets annoying with hundreds of back-and-forth messages, the information gets lost in about ten minutes, the same questions get asked over and over, and there’s always someone who chimes in an hour later to say they can’t do the agreed date, taking you all back to square one 🥱

But there are websites for this, right? 

Do you know what’s more effort than keeping up with the group chat? Trying to hunt down a website to share a poll with your friends, and then getting them to actually fill it out. 

They’re either too professional for a friends get-together (way too weird to send a Calendly link for ‘Beer and Pizza Night 🍻🍕’) or you’re getting spammed by ads (Doodle polls sound great in theory, don’t get us wrong… but those intrusive ads are killer 🫠).

You could go the robot route and set up a spreadsheet to log the time everyone is free. Once you find a template online, you need to get all of your friends to check their calendars or planners and then head back to the sheet to input the dates that their free. Then all you have to do is work out what date most people are free before availabilities change again. 

You could share your calendar, right?

Everyone’s using their Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar for work, so why not try that to find the right time for your ‘Cocktail catch up 🍹’? It definitely helps… if you’re looking for a lunchtime meet 😬

These professional calendars help to see everyone’s availability during their 9-5, but nobody is putting their social plans or weekend plans in there. Your friends don’t put their fun plans in the same place where all their meetings live.

And sending an official calendar invite for a social plan… just feels wrong 😳

But you want a simpler way. Check out Howbout 🔥

Howbout was made to help friends get together, so it’s without a doubt the best way to find a date where you and your mates are all free without being spammed with ads or feeling too corporate.

You can sync all your existing calendars if you use them (like your work schedules or your subscribed calendars) or block your time directly in the app and Howbout will instantly tell you when everyone’s free. You can share your full calendar, social calendar or just your availability with any of your friends without feeling like you’re sending them a meeting invite for appraisal with their boss 😓 And if there are multiple options for dates that work, you can easily share polls with the whole group. All 100% free with no ads 💪

Want a deeper look into the app?

Instant availability: Howbout takes into account all your availability and will instantly output when works best for you and the whole group! 

Shared calendars: You can share your full calendar or your availability with all your friends to make planning even easier. Don’t worry, you always have full control of who can see what!

Time polls: Got a couple of options that work? Howbout has in-built time polls so your mates can all get involved and vote on which dates they’d prefer. The poll directly links in with your availability so voting is even simpler.

Plan details: Once the details are sorted, they’re all saved in the plan on Howbout. No more “What time is it again?”s or “Where are we meeting?”s. 

Built-in chats: Howbout’s got you covered with an automatic chat for every plan! You can share polls, gifs, videos and pictures with the whole group easily. As we said… Howbout was made for you and your mates.

Invites: Whether your friends are on Howbout or not, you can easily send them invites by link wherever you guys are already chatting. 

So, what are you still doing here?

Howbout is available on iOS and Android and is 100% free! Go get your events planned now (trust us… it’ll be quicker than finding this blog in the first place 😏).